Barry Zito eyes major league comeback

Share this:

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Barry Zito (75) walks back to the bench after pitching against Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group)

Barry Zito will audition for teams in January in hopes of returning to the big leagues, his agent Scott Boras said Wednesday at the winter meetings. Boras said Zito, who stepped away from the game after the 2013 season, has been working out at a facility in Houston since September and is encouraged by the mechanical adjustments he has made. Zito is working with Ron Wolforth, a rather unorthodox trainer who helped A’s left-hander Scott Kazmir return to form.

“He’s been working hard on his mechanics,” Boras said of Zito. “He doesn’t cup the ball anymore, and his drive to home plate is a little bit different than it was. He’s got kind of new mechanical evolutions.”

Zito pitched seven mostly disappointing seasons for the Giants and went 5-11 with a 5.74 ERA in 2013. He last appeared on the final day of the 2013 regular season, when he came out of the bullpen and struck out San Diego’s Mark Kotsay before receiving an extended, raucous ovation from an AT&T Park crowd that was rewarding Zito for his contributions during the 2012 title run. Zito had a 4.26 ERA in seven seasons in San Francisco but threw 7﻿2/3 shutout innings in Game 5 of the 2012 NLCS to save the season and help propel the Giants to a second title. He then went out and won Game 1 of the World Series.

Boras referenced that NLCS gem when talking about Zito and said he’s confident the 36-year-old can still succeed.

“Remember, when Barry stopped pitching (after the 2013 season) he could still continue to pitch,” Boras said. “Even at that level without any improvement, I felt he could still compete and pitch in the big leagues. If he has added strengths and durability and more control, all the better. You’re talking about a guy that has really a historic record under his belt, so he certainly knows what’s necessary.”

The Giants replaced Zito with Tim Hudson and the left-hander never attempted to pitch last season. He took the year off and became a father, but he’s stepped up the workouts in a bid to return to an MLB mound. Boras said Zito’s move to Houston shows how committed he is to the process, and added that he’s found “a pitching guru” in Wolforth.

In June, The Houston-based trainer was profiled in an ESPN The Magazine article about Kazmir.

“Ron Wolforth is something of a general contractor, specializing in rebuilding broken-down pitchers through guidance, motivation and the occasional straight shot of tough love,” according to the story. “He studies biomechanics yet despises absolutes, which results in a teaching approach that relies more on suggestion than dogma.”